“I really like Doug’s approach,” Morton continued. “Let’s not act like an agency, let’s act like an enterprise.”

He said “faculty and staff” are concerned about the proposed cuts, and claimed they hadn’t received pay increases in “several years.”

Still, when I asked Morton if Burgum’s budget targets are achievable, he said yes. “We will live within the budget,” adding that he didn’t like the claim from some (he didn’t name who) that Burgum is anti-higher education.

Superintendent Kirsten Baesler was also on to talk about a new public information dashboard for the state’s K-12 schools. “I’m very proud of this,” she said of the data. She said launching the website did get some opposition from certain education groups. She said they were “very concerned about people not being able to interpret the data correctly.”

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